DFI Session 8 - Computational Thinking

Kia ora bloggers!

During today's DFI session we looked at computational thinking. When I think about myself and my confidence in teaching this content I am definitely at a beginner level. Over the last year or so my school has had some PLD on the new digital technologies curriculum and how to get started on teaching computational thinking in our classes. This has been really beneficial as it has helped me wrap my head around what is expected and how this can be implemented within a junior classroom. So far, I have explored unplugged programming activities with my class but I am yet to expand into the digital. I will be looking to do this by using programmes/tools like Scratch Junior and Bee-Bots (once I've explored them a bit more myself and feel confident in using them).

We then connected with the Manaiakalani pedagogy by looking at empowerment. Something that really resonated with me was the idea that choice = empowerment. This made me think about how much choice I provide my students with on a day-to-day basis. During Auckland's many lockdowns I developed learner choice boards where each week I created 9+ activities for my students. They were able to choose which activities they wanted to complete and when they wanted to complete them. This worked really well - students were engaged and enjoyed being able to select their own learning tasks. The quality of the work they produced was of a high standard as well. Post-lockdown this was something I reflected upon and said to myself I would include in my regular classroom programme but, I'm sad to say, I haven't kept up with this. Hearing Dorothy talk on this topic was a good reminder of how something so simple can empower students to achieve so much.

Deep diving into future technologies was next on the agenda. We looked at how technology has evolved over the last 10 years and how, inevitably, this evolution will continue. This moved into a conversation about how we need to prepare our students for a world filled with technologies that have not even been invented yet. The digital technologies curriculum is how we can do this. From here we were treated to a Scratch presentation by a Year 8 student from Pt England. It was awesome to see what he has learnt and been able to create through this programme. I had heard of Scratch before but hadn't properly explored it until today. Here's a quick screencastify of a project I made a start on. 😊

We also had a play with Makey Makey. Here's a video of us making some sweet sweet beats with this technology. 💃🎶

Have you used Makey Makey or Scratch with your class before? I'd love to hear how you have used it and what your students created!

DFI Session 7 - Devices

Ahiahi mārie koutou,

Today we kicked off our DFI session by taking a 'deep dive' into being cybersmart. In this digital age it is incredibly important for our students to understand what this is and how they can enact it in their online life, both inside and outside of school hours. Just as we teach positive classroom behaviours through PB4L, we need to explicitly teach positive cybersmart behaviours. Manaiakalani facilitators have created specific cybersmart lessons for teachers to use in their classrooms to teach these behaviours. However, it is important to recognise that cybersmart should not be a stand-alone subject. Instead, it should be integrated across the classroom programme.
Last year I was lucky enough to have the in-class support of our fabulous Ako Hiko facilitator, Phil, who regularly came into my class and taught these cybersamrt lessons and modelled effective practice for me. I have tried to continue this in my classroom this year but I am finding that I'm not integrating it as well as I could/should. This is an area that I'm looking to improve on over the latter half of the year.

We then took a quick look at Screencastify and Hapara Workspace. I became familiar with Screencastify last year during lockdown and found it SO helpful! Because we went into our first lockdown so early in the year, we hadn't used the iPads very much at all and the majority of my students didn't know how to use their Google Drive or navigate the class site. Thankfully, I was able to use Screencastify to record visual and audio instructions and talk my students through how to access their learning. 

Next up, we moved into taking a look at ubiquitous learning and teaching. This refers to learning and teaching being accessible anytime, anywhere, by anyone, at any pace. Last years lockdowns were a prime example of why this is so important. Through my class site I was able to deliver learning to my students despite us not being able to be in the classroom together. This learning was shared mainly through Google Meets, (some) Google Meet recordings, Screencastify and Google Slides. This is something that I am quite proud of, especially as I was only in my first few months of teaching when we went into that first level 4 lockdown. Something I regret from that time is not remembering to record ALL of the Google Meet sessions I ran. While I did have a decent turn out of students at these Meets (most days), there were many students who weren't, for whatever reason, able to make the scheduled Meets. Having all content recorded and these recordings uploaded on the class site would have been incredibly valuable not only for those learners who missed out, but for students who wanted/needed to revisit the learning and instructions in their own time. Fingers crossed there won't be any lockdowns in the future but if there is, I will certainly remember to hit that record button.

Later in the session, we stepped into the role of the student and explored the devices they use in class; Chromebooks and iPads. It was a good reminder of how apps and programmes look and operate differently on different devices. This is something that became VERY obvious to me during lockdown when some students were using school iPads and others were using their own devices. We ran into quite a few problems during the first lockdown because of this, so I had to think carefully about the tasks I was creating, as well as how and through which apps I was getting students to complete these tasks. It was a steep learning curve for me, that's for sure. 😅

Although my students use iPads, I found doing the Chromebook 'digital dig' task particularly useful as I've never used a chromebook before - what a great way to help children get familiar with navigating and using their device! This is something that I'd love to do with my junior students at the beginning of the year, when they are first learning how to use their iPad.

One the iPads, we looked at Explain Everything (EE) - an interactive online whiteboard. Thanks again to the fabulous Phil, I was introduced to this programme last year so my students and I are quite familiar with it. Today, we played around with some of the basic tools to create our own EE project. Check out mine below. 😊

The last task of the day was to repurpose a cybersmart lesson using one of the tools covered in today's session. I choose to use EE as this is what I use in class with my learners. I chose to focus on the idea of being a 'Smart Surfer' and knowing how to effectively search for information online. Here is the task I made a start on creating for my kids. My next step will be to add audio instructions to each slide.

DFI Session 5 - Collaboration

Talofa lava!

Manuia le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa! 😄

Today's DFI session focussed on visibility. Dorothy spoke on the importance of making our planning, the learning process and outcomes, and assessment visible to learners, whānau and other educators. Visibility for learners is important so that they can access their learning, feedback and feedforward. Visibility for whānau is important so that they are aware of what is going on in their child's school life and can be involved in the learning. Visibility for our colleagues is important so that we can share our knowledge, ideas and any resources we have made and/or found - teaching is a collaborative profession, after all. For me, some areas of learning and teaching are already visible on my class site but I am not yet consistently doing this in all subject areas. This is a work on for me.

We also looked at the ideas of multi-modal and multi-textual. This was quite timely for me as we are currently working to implement T-shape literacy into our reading programme at my school, which is based around these exact ideas. Through personalising learning and providing more options and choice for our students we can capture their engagement and hook them into the learning. Working in a junior classroom, I am finding it a bit difficult to find multiple texts that address the themes, concepts and issues we are looking at in class so I am still working on developing my T-shape literacy programme at a level that my students can access.

Next up, we took a 'deep dive' into Google Sites. We explored creating a multi-modal site using tips Jeremy shared around creating a site, inserting banner images and adding content to a page. Having attended the Ako Hiko orientation day at the beginning of 2020, where we focussed on building our class sites, I feel quite confident in using Google Sites but I do like the idea of creating multi-modal sites that are seperate from our class site. Using a seperate site may be an easier way of setting up and using T-shaped literacy in my classroom.

Unfortunately, I had to leave today's session early so I don't have a 'create' element to share this week but I'm looking forward to next week where we will continue to explore Google Sites and enabling access through this platform.

Until then, happy blogging (and long weekend)! 😊